Audit committee member wants district to pay IG’s legal bills

The former chairman of the Palm Beach County School District’s Audit Committee today asked that the school district pay the legal bills of embattled Inspector General Lung Chiu relating to a retaliation complaint filed against him by his former secretary, Marlene Verbiest.

“You can see as well as I can see there is no beef to this complaint,” said Greg Daniel, who stepped down as chairman earlier this year but remains on the audit committee. “I think it’s a conspiracy by a few people to take down the Inspector General.”

Verbiest, Chiu’s longtime secretary, filed a complaint last August alleging that Chiu tried to retaliate against her after she complained about her working conditions. According to an investigation report from a private attorney hired by the school district, Christine Hanley, Verbiest last September told Chiu that she would no longer work late which made her a whistleblower and Chiu asked human resources to have her transferred which Hanley found could constitute attempted retaliation against a whistleblower.

Verbiest eventually requested her own transfer to the charter department.

Hanley found that Chiu failed to ensure the accuracy of Verbiest’s time records but could not determine if she ever worked overtime for which she was not paid.

Chiu’s attorney, Margaret Cooper, argued at an audit meeting last month that Verbiest never worked more than 40 hours despite working flexible hours, never reported overtime for which she was not paid and her complaint did not legally qualify as a whistleblower complaint. Cooper also argued that Chiu never tried to get her transferred so there was no attempted retaliation.

The school board is slated to vote on Wednesday at 2 p.m. on whether Chiu will face any discipline up to and including termination because of the Verbiest complaint.

Daniel blasted the Hanley investigation, saying it was “not worth the paper it was printed on” and made a motion that the audit committee recommend to the school board that they pay Chiu’s legal fees for hiring an attorney to defend himself against the complaint.

Daniel claimed Chiu has already wracked up legal bills defending himself from other complaints that were determined to be unfounded and the district has never reimbursed him for those costs. Chiu could not say at the meeting this morning exactly what his total legal bills are defending himself from the Verbiest complaint.

Other audit committee members suggested they should wait to see if the board finds any malfeasance on Chiu’s part and takes any disciplinary action against him on Wednesday before recommending whether the district should pay his legal bills. So the audit committee tabled Daniel’s suggestion until their next meeting in July.